It seems now that a government shutdown of at a least a day or so is inevitable, even if it's only just over the weekend.

If tomorrow (Saturday, April 9, 20011) is Day 1, how long do you think it will be?

I suspect that it will be fairly short -- once the news is full of reports of 1)problems caused by the shutdown (the delay of tax refund processing will be the blockbuster, affecting large numbers of people) and 2)Republican freshmen whooping it up and taking "credit", the GOP leadership will realize that they've stepped in it even worse than they did in the Gingrich years and that they need to declare victory and retreat, pronto.

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Boehner's in a tough spot, here. It's clear that a significant percentage of his freshman class doesn't give a damn about the consequences of a shutdown. They just want to win. Boehner, on the other hand, wants to keep his majority and not screw up his momentum going into the next election cycle.

As mentioned before he has the ghost of Newt Gingrich in his eyes. Gingrich not only lost momentum but was out of office within a few years of the shutdown.

I voted it will last a week--but it may not go that long. Only thing I can figure is both sides sorta want a shutdown, so they can claim that "We stood up to those evil (other party here) bastards, fighting for you, our beloved citizens."

Republicans will claim the Dems did it. Dems will claim Republicans did it. And when it is over, both sides will declare victory.

I think these guys are going to milk this for every last photo op and sound bite, then Sunday night, come to a resolution. the Freshmen Tea baggers don't remember the backlash in the 90's, but Boehner does.

Either they'll reach a deal by Monday morning, or settle in for awhile. I'd be really surprised to see them arrive at a deal anytime between Monday noon and Thursday noon of next week, in particular. Could be sooner, could be later.

As long as necessary. Can we keep it shut down long enough to make up for all the overspending done over the last decade?

You realize this isn't actually going to save any money, right? This is going to cause projects ad activities to get delayed. When stuff gets delayed, it doesn't get cheaper. It gets more and more expensive to clean up the backlog and mess.